Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lowered the top end of a range of
"reasonably possible" legal costs to $3.2 billion, the Wall Street
firm said Thursday in a regulatory filing.
Goldman's estimate for the expenses, which are above what the
firm had already set aside in legal reserves, had reached a high
end of $3.7 billion three months ago. Those reserves went up during
the second quarter; provisions for legal and regulatory matters
totaled $284 million in the three months that ended in June,
Goldman reported last month.
Thursday's quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange
Commission also added a new item to the list of regulatory
inquiries it faces. The firm noted that its U.S.
alternative-trading system was among those businesses under
review.
The Wall Street Journal reported in May that Goldman was among
those banks facing scrutiny from New York Attorney General Eric
Schneiderman's probe into whether high-speed trading firms enjoy
unfair advantages over other investors in trading stocks. Goldman
operates a private trading venue called Sigma X.
Goldman also said in its filing on Thursday that its traders
lost money on eight separate days during the second quarter. The
New York's firm also reported five days in which trading revenue
topped $100 million.
The firm's credit exposures in Russia, which faces U.S.
sanctions for its actions in Ukraine, totaled $473 million as of
June. Its market exposure in the country was $624 million, Goldman
said in the filing.
Goldman said its exposure to Argentina, which recently defaulted
on its debt, and Ukraine wasn't material as of June.
Write to Justin Baer at justin.baer@wsj.com
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